Methods and devices of this type are generally used in so-called interactive voice-communication systems or voice-controlled systems for, e.g. vehicles, computers, robots, machines, equipment, etc.
In general, an interactive voice-communication system (SDS) can essentially be reduced to the following components:                Speech recognition system, which compares an orally input command (“voice command”) to other allowed voice commands, and decides which command, in all probability, was orally input;        Voice output, which outputs the voice commands and signal tones necessary for prompting the user, and possibly acknowledges the recognition result;        Dialog and sequencing control, in order to explain to the user which type of input is expected, to check if the input is consistent with the prompt and the current status of the application, and to trigger the resulting action in the application (for example, the device to be controlled);        Control interface as an interface to the application: Hidden behind it are hardware and software modules for controlling various actuators and computers, which contain the application; and        Application that is controlled by speech: For example, it can be an ordering or information system, a CAE workstation, or a wheel chair for the disabled.        
For example, such a voice-communication system is described in German Published Patent Application No. 195 33 541. To increase the acceptance of such man-machine dialog, synonymous words or various pronunciations for the commands are used, or the words are rearranged in the commands. For example, “larger radius when turning left” can alternatively be expressed here as “when turning left, larger radius”. In addition, a multilingual, interactive communication system independent of the speaker can be set up by expanding the memory, it being possible to alternatively switch between the interactive communication systems of various languages. In addition, ellipses may be used, i.e., dispensing with the repetition of complete command sentences, and instead using commands such as “higher”, “sharper”, or “further”, the voice-communication system then assigning these to the preceding commands. In response to uncertain recognition, the voice-communication system can also pose questions such as “Excuse me?”, “Please repeat that”, or “What else?”, or issue specific suggestions such as “Louder, please”. All of these measures are used to avoid monotonic communication and to have the dialog more closely approximate human-to-human communication. To improve the communication, the voice system is coupled to an optical display medium, on which the recognized commands are indicated for control purposes. Furthermore, the optical display medium allows the display of functions from the target device which are set in response to the voice command; and/or the display of various functions/alternatives, which can subsequently be set or selected by a voice command. A disadvantage of this device and the method implemented thereby is that, despite the given improvements, the voice output tires the user due to its monotony, so that his or her reaction time is too slow during events requiring immediate action. An additional problem is that, in response to recognition difficulties, the voice-communication systems perform an endless loop and issue the user the same prompt again and again, so that the workflow is interrupted.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention is based on the engineering to provide a method and a device for outputting information and/or status messages, using speech, in which the attentiveness of the user is improved.